Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1887-06-23
The Pluck and Spirit Of the
Women of Kansas Allowed
the Men to Think OF
Nothing but
Success.
Though They Experienced the
Hardest of the Trials
They Came to Stay.
BY JUDGE L. ID. BAILEY.
No. XII.

No. XII.
Of the men of the early days, the
days that tired men souls in the ee-
fort to establish free state settlements
in Kansas. have spoken at large in
former letters. In this / propose to
speak of some few out of the many
deeds of the heroic women who took
part in the trials and tribuIations of
those stormy times. "Had it not been
for the women and indomitable pluck
and spirit they showed, l think the men
would have given up the struggle, "
said an active leader in the cause.
''The women would never let the men
back out or go east if they showed
signs of wishing to do so, and we just
had to keep on and fight it out lest the
women would think us cowards.''
In many respects the women bore
the hardest part of the trials incident to
the new settlement: "Roughing it"
seems to come natural to men, but
women accustomed to living in good,
well-furnished houses, surrounded by
friends and neighbors, found it no easy
matter to adapt themselves to the con-
ditions of life on the naked prairie with
only wagon cover, tent, rude log
house; or shanty built of sods, and
rooted with hay. Even if there had
been no human foes to overcome, the
wild beasts, and the wild country offered
sufficient obstacles to comfort and en-
joyment.
But when war came they showed
themselves ready to meet it, and they
did meet it with most unfinching and
heroic courage. Often were their rude
houses invaded by boisterous whisky
soaked ruAians, and often at midnight
did they find themselves compelled to
snatch their children from their beds
and fly to the shelter of some neighbor-
ing ravine, plumb thicket, or forest, if
perchance such forest could be found
near enough to afford place of refuge.
And there they would pass the night
to find perhaps on their return to their
cabin that the ruffians had been there
and had plundered them of the few
necessaries and conveniances they af-
forded. But the constant fears for
the safety of their husbands, brothers
or fathers made life still harder for
them, Bogus warrants were sworn out
against nearly every active free state
man, and bogus officers were constantly
providing about to arrest them.
One of the basest and most offensive
of these ruf6anly officers was a man
named Sam Salters, think from South
Carolina. He had warrant for John
Speer, then editor of the Lawrence
Tribune, now a citizen of Finney couny
and member of the board of county
commissioners. Salters went to Speers'
house and called for him, but was as
sured by Mrs. Speer that he was not at
home, which was the fact. He rudely
disputed her word. and insisted on en-
tering the house to make search. Mrs.
Speer was lady of culture and refine
ment, decended from an old Kentucky
family, and was not slow to resent the
coarse and brutal style of the contempt
ible whelp. So she closed the door in
his face and attempted to fasten it. He
used force to effect an entrance, but
met with a warmer reception than he
had counted on, for Mrs. Speer having
q kettle of hot water on the stove
within reach promptly dashed dipper-
full of it IN the bastard face. He wore
q heavy black beard and mustache, and
it was said that the hot water had the
same effect upon him that it is known
to have upon the the BRUSHES of the
less-brutal, four-legged swine. The
rufhan swore roundly, but retreated
amid the laughing jeers of the soldiers
who accompanied him, and he never
went to that house again on such an
errand.
Provisions were often scarce and
some ladies became sklllful hunters.
l knew one lady who, when her husband
was sick, took his rifle and went into
the timber in search of game, and soon
had the good luck to shoot fine buck
deer. At another time she killed a
wild turkey, and frequently prairie
chickens and smaller game.
florence Nightingale achieved indy
ing fame by her devotion to the care Of
the sick soldiers of her country during
the war in the Crimea, and the women
Of Kansas rendered equally devoted